A Snapshot of Australia’s Digital Future to 2050

Thank you for your interest in A Snapshot of Australia’s Digital Future to 2050 report.

A world-first, the report reveals information and communications technology (ICT) enhanced with ubiquitous high-speed broadband is becoming Australia’s new utility – as historic and game changing as electricity or telephony.

Written by Phil Ruthven, Founder and Chairman, IBISWorld, and commissioned by IBM, the report looks ahead of existing research to examine how Australia can harness this new utility to transform our lives, our cities and the way we interact.

The report rates all Australia’s industry classes (509) against the impact of the new utility. Ruthven and his extended Industry Impact Panel assessed the prospects of the 509 classes of industry in the Australian economy over the next 40-50 years.

The report predicts that 46 per cent of Australia’s current industry revenue will substantially benefit from the new utility: 23 per cent of the nation’s revenue, will not function without this new utility, and a further 23 per cent of industry revenue will use it to drive step-changes in their business. 15 industry classes are likely to demise if they do not reinvent themselves to embrace the digital future; and some may simply be unable to do so.

The report finds by 2050, this new utility will generate around $1 trillion in revenue for Australia – almost eight times the $131 billion it generates today. Also, Australia will no longer be known for its dependency on the export of natural resources over the next half century. It will become known as much an exporter of services such as tourism, business services, health and education services. The export of tourism alone could match the 2012 mineral exports totalling around $175 billion by 2030.

Find out how these findings will help you and your organisation prepare for the digital future.